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HILL PANELS SPOTLIGHT LNG EXPORTS: At least three hearings on the Hill this week will touch on LNG exports, which have become an increasingly hot topic given the Ukraine crisis. Here’s what you need to know.

Landrieu’s first hearing atop ENR: Mary Landrieu will chair her first hearing as chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the topic is natural gas exports. While Energy Information Administration chief Adam Sieminski and his detailed data on energy is always a hit at hearings, a lot of focus will be on Jaroslav Neverovic, the energy minister of Lithuania, given the Ukraine crisis. The Russian state-owned firm Gazprom provides all of Lithuania's natural gas, according to the Lithuania Tribune, which says the country is also hoping to finish an LNG terminal in Klaipeda by the end of 2014 (http://bit.ly/1jxL6JC). Ten points to Gryffindor if anyone mentions the sanctions Russia recently slapped on Landrieu. More: http://1.usa.gov/1e06bMk. 10 a.m., Dirksen 366

House LNG export bill: The Energy and Commerce Committee's Energy and Power Subcommittee will hold this afternoon on H.R. 6, Rep. Cory Gardner's LNG export bill. This hearing has also taken on an international flair. Lawmakers will hear from Anita Orba´n, ambassador-at-large for energy security or Hungary, which along with Poland, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic earlier this month urged lawmakers to speed up LNG exports.

— “By liberalizing LNG exports, by eliminating the legal and administrative obstacles to the free trading of this vital, domestically produced commodity, the United States would provide fast and long-lasting protection for its allies against the most important dangers of natural gas dependency,” Orba´n says in her prepared testimony. “Moreover, it would also enable them to act more freely in assisting Ukraine in case of an energy crisis developed there.” Hearing info: http://1.usa.gov/1eqU4Z9. 1:30 p.m., Rayburn 2123

Blair, Hamm testify: A House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on energy exports taking place Wednesday, is also drawing some big names, including retired Navy Adm. Dennis Blair, Obama's former director of national intelligence who now works with Securing America’s Future Energy, and Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm, who will testify on behalf of the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance. “This hearing presents the committee with an especially timely opportunity to examine how to better utilize U.S. natural resources in an effort to break Russia’s energy grip over Ukraine and other European countries, which undermines their security,” Chairman Ed Royce said. http://1.usa.gov/1dgnAT6. Wednesday, 10 a.m., Rayburn 2172

And a markup: Foreign Affairs will vote today on a Ukraine aid package. Rep. Ted Poe will offer an amendment requiring an analysis of the effect that U.S. liquefied natural gas exports could have on Russia. Poe has tried to offer language expediting LNG exports as well. But House Republicans have acknowledged there isn’t the two-thirds support in the full House for quickening LNG exports to allow it to ride along a broader Ukraine and Russia bill that leaders in both parties want to move quickly and with broad support.

MORE LNG EXPORT NEWS — BARRASSO AMENDMENT TO UKRAINE PACKAGE: Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has filed his LNG export amendment to the Ukraine aid package that moved through a procedural vote yesterday and will be on the Senate floor this week. Pros will remember Barrasso's amendment, which looks to speed up LNG export to Ukraine and NATO allies, was ruled non-germane at a Foreign Relations markup earlier this month, though Chairman Robert Menendez said he is willing to work with Barrasso on the issue.

— It’s not clear whether Barrasso’s amendment will actually get a vote. However, there are additional hurdles, and the larger package isn’t likely to clear Congress soon. The Senate version includes provisions making reforms to the International Monetary Fund, but House leadership hasn’t shown any interest in including the IMF language.

GOOD TIMING: DOE yesterday conditionally approved the Jordan Cove LNG facility in Oregon to export up to 0.8 billion cubic feet on LNG per day to non-FTA nations. DOE's order: http://1.usa.gov/1jn2pRR

JEWELL TESTIFIES ON INTERIOR BUDGET: Interior Secretary Sally Jewell will appear before the House Interior appropriations subcommittee to testify on the department’s FY 2015 budget request. Pros will remember the administration has requested a 3 percent budget increase over the 2013 enacted level. Money would go toward boosting support for energy development and inspections and preparing the National Park System ahead of its 2016 centennial. The budget request also repeats proposed reforms for oil and gas management programs that the administration says would save $2.5 billion of 10 years. The hearing is at 1:30 p.m. in Rayburn 2359.

FLOOR WATCH — HOUSE TAKES UP COAL BILL: The House today is scheduled to take up H.R. 2824, which deals with the stream buffer zone rule, an important coal mining regulation. While the bill originally started as a way to block the Interior Department’s ongoing re-write of a George W. Bush-era version of the rule, things changed after a federal judge said the 2008 rule violated the Endangered Species Act, vacated it and sent it back to Interior. GOP backers have since modified the bill to essentially re-instate the 2008 rule — and environmentalists aren’t too happy about it. Refresher: http://politico.pro/1qbrJuC

— The White House threatened earlier this month to veto the bill, saying it “creates needless regulatory and legal uncertainty, and requires States to waste significant taxpayer dollars adopting a rule that has been vacated by a Federal court.” Yesterday the League of Conservation Voters urged lawmakers to vote against the bill, saying it “would nullify sensible safeguards that prevent the dumping of dangerous mining waste into our waterways.” Read: http://politico.pro/1hhmWjR. And the NRDC has put out a music video opposing the bill that features Willie Nelson: http://bit.ly/1rpTj80

TODAY IN COURT: WildEarth Guardians will argue their case that EPA wrongly denied their petition requesting the agency regulate methane and other emissions from coal mines. In denying the petition, EPA cited limited resources and budget problems, not an issue with the potential regulations themselves. But several intervening groups, including the National Mining Association, argued in briefs that because “there is no legislative mandate requiring action, EPA has discretion to determine its priorities consistent with congressional policy.” Judges Thomas Griffith, Harry Edwards and A. Raymond Randolph of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear arguments this morning.

** A message from the Government of Canada: Canada and America are committed to the same 17 per cent reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020. Canada is taking concrete action to reduce emissions. Canada: America’s best energy partner. Learn more at GoWithCanada.ca http://bit.ly/1cNqQPp**

UN AGENCY — CLIMATE CHANGE WILL CONTINUE: Via Reuters: “There has been no reverse in the trend of global warming and there is still consistent evidence for man-made climate change, the head of the U.N. World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Monday. A slow-down in the average pace of warming at the planet's surface this century has been cited by "climate skeptics" as evidence that climate change is not happening at the potentially catastrophic rate predicted by a U.N. panel of scientists. But U.N. weather agency chief Michel Jarraud said ocean temperatures, in particular, were rising fast, and extreme weather events, forecast by climate scientists, showed climate change was inevitable for the coming centuries.” Reuters: http://reut.rs/1m3cv7F

CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS FOOD SECURITY, OXFAM SAYS: Climate change will have a dramatic effect on global food security, according to a new Oxfam paper. “While many countries — both rich and poor — are inadequately prepared for the impact of climate change on food, it is the world’s poorest and most food insecure countries that are generally the least prepared for and most susceptible to harmful climate change. No country's food system will be unaffected by worsening climate change,” the paper says. But it’s not too late. It says the country’s decisions about emissions reductions and support for poorer nations “will determine whether our food systems can continue to support us in the second half of the century.” Read: http://bit.ly/1m38DDG

FROM ME’S MAILBAG: EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee should tell EPA that the agency's ozone NAAQS, which the panel is considering at meetings this week in North Carolina, could have "adverse economic impacts ... as much as $90 billion annually," a coalition of groups opposed to further limits. “There is no contradiction between the prohibition on considering costs in setting standards and providing critical advice to the EPA Administrator about any potential negative economic or public welfare effects from efforts to attain new standards,” write National Association of Manufacturers, the American Petroleum Institute and others. “Those effects can come in the form of unemployment, higher energy and production costs for manufacturers, or hardship to local communities already burdened with regulations tied to existing standards.” Letter: http://politico.pro/1nWwlGv

VITTER HITS BROMWICH OVER DOJ CONTRACT: Sen. David Vitter yesterday criticized the strategy group run by former BOEMRE chief Michael Bromwich for recently landing a $25,000 contract with the Justice Department. In a letter to DOJ, Vitter wrote that is violating a promise he made in 2010 to impose a "lifetime ban on contacts with the agency.” Bromwich, who was also DOJ's inspector general from 1994 to 1999, appeared to be referring only to BOEMRE or its successors. And before leaving the agency at the end of 2011, Bromwich told reporters he would not directly work with BSEE or BOEM. “That doesn’t mean I can’t work on the issues,” he said. “But I will never be in this room dealing with a future director of one of these agencies.” (Refresher: http://politico.pro/1hhb29r). Vitter’s letter: http://1.usa.gov/1kY5CVa

However, it is not clear that Bromwich is involved with the contract, which is with the Bromwich Group. Contract information released by Vitter (http://1.usa.gov/1dHgNwi) says it is for work with the Office on Violence Against Women Campus Program. Also working at Bromwich's firm is Melissa Schwartz — who, before working for Bromwich and then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, worked on violence against women and other issues at DOJ’s public affairs office. The Bromwich Group declined to comment.

QUICK HITS

— The lawyer representing the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources in a federal probe over Duke Energy's coal ash spill once represented Duke in another criminal investigation. AP: http://apne.ws/1c5FgKK

9 a.m. — The Sierra Club and others host a Hill briefing on the Exxon Valdez disaster's 25th anniversary. Rick Steiner, a professor who worked on the spill response, speaks. Capitol Visitor Center SVC-212

2 p.m. — The House Natural Resources Committee's public lands panel holds a hearing on five bills. http://1.usa.gov/1eZXvTn. Longworth 1334

2 p.m. — Natural Resources' water and power panel holds a hearing on the budgets of the Bureau of Reclamation, the power marketing administrations and the U.S. Geological Survey's water program. http://1.usa.gov/1lXsrbw. Longworth 1324

2 p.m. — The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee holds a hearing on water quality trading. http://1.usa.gov/OI9puD. Rayburn 2167

** A message from the Government of Canada: Canada and America are committed to the same 17 per cent reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020. Canada’s oil sands operate in one of the world’s most stringent regulatory environments, and as a major supplier of crude oil to Gulf Coast refineries, Canada continues to use innovation and technology to reduce emissions. Canadian pipelines are the environmentally responsible choice to meet America’s oil energy needs.

CORRECTION: A previous version of Morning Energy gave the incorrect date of a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on natural gas exports and other energy issues. The hearing is Wednesday, March 26.